Leonard Blavatnik

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Leonard Blavatnik

Born 1957
Russia
Occupation Founder, Chairman and President
Net worth ▲ $7 billion USD, Forbes 400

Len Blavatnik (Russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник, Leonid Valentinovich Blavatnik) (born 1957) is a Jewish-American industrialist, born in Russia, and currently living in New York and London.

He attended the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute. He emigrated with his family from Russia to the U.S. in 1978, and received a masters in computer science from Columbia University and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1989. In the West, he is known as Len Blavatnik.

In 1986 he founded Access Industries, a New York-based international industrial group, of which he is Chairman and President. Access has long-term strategic holdings in Europe, North and South America. Initially, he moved into Russian investments, just after the fall of communism. With a friend from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute, Viktor Vekselberg, he formed the Renova investment vehicle, and the two joined with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group to form the AAR venture. To date, Access has diversified its portfolio to include investments in industries such as oil, coal, aluminum, petrochemicals and plastics, telecommunications, media, and real estate.

AAR gained a controlling stake in Russian oil company TNK through privatisation auctions, then in 2003 sold 50% stake to British Petroleum to form TNK-BP, one of Russia's largest oil companies, for which he serves on the board of directors.

Blavatnik also has interests in UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminum producer, where he sits on the board, and Warner Music Group.

Access Industries bought petrochemicals and plastics manufacturer Basell Polyolefins from Royal Dutch Shell and BASF for $5.7 billion in August 2005.

On December 20th, 2007, Basell completed its acquisition of the Lyondell Chemical Company, paying $48 per share in cash to the latter's shareholders. Including the assumption of Lyondell debt, the deal has an enterprise value of approximately $19 billion. The resulting company, LyondellBasell Industries is the world's third largest chemical company based on net sales.

Mr. Blavatnik is also a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Centre for International Business and Management at Cambridge University, a member of the board of Dean’s Advisors at the Harvard Business School and a member of the academic board at Tel Aviv University. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Eurasia Group in New York, and is Vice Chairman of the Kennan Council at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

[edit] Wealth

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 he was listed as the sixth richest person in the UK with an estimated fortune of £4,670m.

In the Forbes 400 of 2007 he was listed in 45th place with an estimated fortune of $7.2 billion.

In 2004 he purchased a house in London's Kensington Palace Gardens for £41 million.

In 2007 it was reported that he purchased a triplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side for $150 million dollars, but the deal did not go through.

[edit] External links